Labor Mobilizes to Make Montgomery County a Safer Place to Work
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| Executive Secretary/Treasurer
Washington DC Building Trades Council
Vance Ayres at podium. |
ROCKVILLE, Md. (PAI)--Saying both the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and its Maryland state counterpart are overworked and understaffed, organized labor and Montgomery County, Md., government are trying to close job safety and health inspection gaps.
Announcing the Worker Safety and Health Initiative on April 28, County Executive Isaiah “Ike” Leggett, Jim Grossfeld of the Metropolitan Washington Central Labor Council, and Vance Ayres of the Washington, D.C. Building and Construction Trades Council said the program would, among other things, train county workers to become “eyes and ears” on job safety and health issues. “Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) does a great job, but it has so few staff that it would take MOSH 110 years to inspect every Maryland workplace once. We can’t do MOSH’s job for them, but we can be the extra eyes and ears they need,” said Leggett, who heads the 1-million-person D.C. suburb’s government.
“Despite our serious budget challenges, there are ways we can use existing resources to help reduce the thousands of workplace injuries and illnesses that occur each year in the county,” he added. Leggett hoped the initiative can become a model for other counties and states. Its key points include:
- More training to building inspectors and other county staffers to identify serious workplace dangers. It will also try to raise awareness of successful approaches that reduce hazards on the job, and establish a website
with health and safety information and links to federal and state agencies.
- County examination of its private contracts and economic development tax credits to ensure adequate health and safety provisions.
- Distribution of health and safety materials in English and Spanish to construction and landscaping firms doing business there. Those industries, with their heavy number of immigrant workers, will come under scrutiny as a top priority.
“All workers have the right to a safe workplace to protect themselves and their fellow workers from any injury," said Ayres. "the Worker Health and Safety Initiative will help see to it that every worker's right to safety is respected."
“We’re putting every employer on notice that workers should never have to trade their health for their paychecks,” said Grossfeld, a Newspaper Guild / CWA member.
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